In command: Jose Mourinho points the way to a new era at Italian champions Inter Milan

By Oliver Brown in Milan

12:01AM BST 04 Jun 2008

We have missed him. Jose Mourinho cut a neat line in self-deprecation yesterday as he used his unveiling at Inter Milan to claim that he no longer wanted to be thought special, that he was just a normal manager who had come to a special club. Do not believe a word of it.

From the moment Mourinho began delivering his debut address to the media in near-flawless Italian he was on vintage form - by turns nonchalant, passionate and withering. When one journalist had the temerity to pose a question too far about Chelsea, the Portuguese cut him down as a "pirla", an insult most politely translated as "fool" and straight out of the book of Milanese colloquialisms. If ever you wanted an exhibition of commanding a crowd, here was your man.

"Sono felice," Mourinho intoned - "I am happy". And so he should be after spending nine months out of the game only to walk into a job paying him £7 million a year, a figure beyond the pale for most Serie A managers.

"Sono molto intelligente." Hard to argue with that either: in three weeks of private tuition at his home in Setubal he has refined his smattering of Italian into fluent, effortless discourse. The former Barcelona translator who once helped Sir Bobby Robson with Spanish and Catalan has extended his polyglotism to a fourth Romance tongue. "Sono solo Mourinho". Fleetingly it appeared that by such modesty, Mourinho was content to subjugate his cult of personality to the needs of his latest club. Forty minutes and several barbs later, and that impression had been happily erased.

His employer, Massimo Moratti, was on business in London yesterday, removed from this uproarious scene. Mourinho disclosed that Inter's owner had approached him the day after the club were dispatched from the Champions League by Liverpool, and only hours after Roberto Mancini had declared his wish to leave the nerazzurri.

Moratti, who has been second only to Roman Abramovich in player investment in the last four years, retains an omnipotence at Inter as il presidente, a godfather figure who is gambling by allowing a character as mercurial as Mourinho to join the family firm. But the oil tycoon would surely have been gratified yesterday to see the impact his appointment made.

Silver-haired and silver-tongued, Mourinho held the press room in his thrall with a familiar blend of subtle smirks and sideways glances. Soon enough, he got down to business.

Having confirmed that he would seek to add only two to three summer signings to Inter's squad, Mourinho was asked directly - in English, to which he reacted with mock horror - whether these would be from Chelsea.

His answer struck that classic note of mischievous equivocation. "I think it's normal, as a consequence of the relationship I have with the Chelsea players, that almost all of them want to work for me in the future," he said. "It's the same for me." To such devoted proteges as Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, it was not quite tantamount to saying "join me", but not far off.

Two almost certain to follow him to the San Siro are Ricardo Quaresma, the £25 million-rated winger from his former club Porto, and centre-back Ricardo Carvalho. To this influx could be added Deco, Barcelona's dynamic playmaker, or even striker Samuel Eto'o, his unsettled colleague.

Lampard's position is more nebulous, hinging on Chelsea's willingness to strike a compromise between his salary of £120,000 a week and John Terry's Premier League record wage of £135,000. But, there is a sense that the recent turmoil wrought in the midfielder's life by the death of his mother could embolden him to make the move abroad. It was put to Mourinho that Lampard could be quick to adapt to the pressing Italian style of play, but he did not bite, talking instead, in casual, effusive terms, about the scudetto-winning Inter side he had inherited. "I like this group, I like their mentality very much - I have a lot of confidence in them."

Still, some teething troubles lurk as Mourinho sets about trying to form key relationships with his new side, while tempering the egos of his millionaire players. Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the 'darling' of Moratti, has, despite tepid Champions League performances, just been made the highest-paid striker in Italy on £9.5 million per year.

Then there is the question of how Mourinho intends to behave should next season's Champions League pit Inter against Chelsea. The 45-year-old was affectionate, if hardly nostalgic in his comments. "I will always, always support Chelsea and wish them all the best with their new coach," he said, "but if Chelsea meet Inter in the Champions League, then I won't know any of them."

Mourinho claimed a desire to turn a "new page" at Inter, sweeping away the methods of Mancini to leave his own inimitable, and perhaps indelible mark.

He has given himself a considerable challenge. Inter are known in Italy as Il Biscione or 'the big snake', and in the case of Mancini - who led the club to three straight scudetti but was still not spared - the snake sometimes coils around upon itself and eats its own tail.

For now, Mourinho envisages no such ending to this chapter of his remarkable managerial journey. Rounding on journalists, his favourite constituency, he said: "I think it could also be very fun for you guys." And then he was gone, the game's great entertainer retreating to perfect his next riveting repertoire.